Friday, March 28, 2014

Today we welcome Sandra Mackness to tell us the latest news from the Carmarthenshire Chapter.

Welcome, Sandra.

﻿

The Carmarthenshire chapter was first founded by Liz Fielding but over the years, most of the original members, including Liz, have moved away or no longer belong to the RNA. That left Christine Stovell, Rachael Thomas and me.

In December 2012 we got together with members living in the Vale of Glamorgan and that meeting was attended by Jean Fullerton.

We have decided to meet again in
Cardiff on Tuesday 29th April. This will be an opportunity to look back at how
we’ve all progressed since our last Cardiff meeting and I know from experience
how generous and supportive the published members are towards those still
working towards publication. Liz Fielding is hoping to cross the border from
England to Wales and there should be around six to eight of us.

I’d like to take
this opportunity and say, if you live within easy distance of Cardiff, we’d love
it if you came along too. We will confirm venue and time at a later date but I
think a 12.00 to 3.00 pm session is best, as three of us are bound by train
connection times.

Cardiff has an awesome castle and museum plus a great shopping centre, all
within walking distance of the bus and train stations so you could combine
research with lunch and writerly discussion.

Thank you, Sandra, we hope you have a lovely time at your get together.

Brought to you by the blogging team of Elaine Everest and Natalie Kleinman. If you wish your Chapter of the RNA to be featured or you have a book due for release please contact us on: elaineeverest@aol.com

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

In May 2013, I was lucky enough to sign a three book deal with Penguin Books for a series of sexy ‘New Adult’ romances set at Oxford University. Although the process has thrown up some big challenges, I also think it’s revitalised my writing career and made me far more willing to experiment in future.

New Adult is a genre that focuses on the relationships and lives of young people who are over 18 but just starting out on adult life. They may be students or new to a career but definitely with their adult lives ahead of them. The books often contain gritty themes – they’re definitely not sex and shopping books. Concerns about parents, siblings and friends, difficult childhoods, uncertainty about the future – all figure, just like in real life. There is also a lot of sex (hurrah.)

The Oxford Blue series tells the story of the tumultuous relationship between Alexander Hunt, an aristocratic British army officer who is studying a Master’s at the fictional Wyckham College, and Lauren Cusack, an American Senator’s daughter doing her Master’s in Art History. While the setting– an Oxbridge college – is very familiar to me, almost every other aspect of the series has been as much of an adventure for me as my characters!

At 21 and 25, Lauren and Alexander are the youngest hero and heroine I’ve ever featured and the novels are the first I’ve ever written in the first person, present. So, I’m now getting inside the head of a character (Lauren) who’s younger than my own daughter. This hasn’t been as difficult as it might seem because I used to write for Little Black Dress books which were aimed at a similar age group to this series.

While NA mainly focuses on the lives of young adults, the readership is much broader because we can all empathise with the joy and pain, and insecurities of early adulthood. I’ve already had a touching comment from a reader in her sixties who said she felt very emotional reading the book because it reminded her of the intense days when she first met her husband.

My daughter and her friends have also been a huge inspiration to me. I’m not suggesting you couldn’t write a series of this type without children of a similar age but the insight and feedback flying between my daughter and me has been invaluable.

Almost by definition, NA books tend to be very sexy, ranging from merely hot to erotic. This aspect was familiar ground to me because all my books have been very sexy. However... it did take some getting used to writing sex scenes in the first person. There’s no POV ‘safety net’ between you and the character and it can feel odd to describe lovemaking as it happens (but also a lot of fun.)

Combine the first person POV, the present tense and the young characters and you have an added intensity to the emotions and action. I recently had to go back and edit one of my other 3rd person novels, and the difference was noticeable. Many people have also said that the new series has a faster pace than my other books, which I also think may be due in part to the POV. I’m never going to be a New Adult but I feel rejuvenated as a writer and I’d definitely do it all over again!

Pippa Croft also writes as Phillipa Ashley.Follow her on twitter @PippaCroftBooks or visit her page on Facebook. Website: www.phillipa-ashley.com
Link to Amazon:

Friday, March 21, 2014

Jill Steeples lives
in a small market town in Bedfordshire with her husband and two children. She
writes short stories for the women’s magazines and romantic comedy novels for
Carina UK. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, walking, baking cakes,
eating them and drinking wine.

Bride-to-be Anna is
devastated when she discovers her fiancé, Ed, has been having an affair. Hurt
and confused, Anna flees to the seaside in need of some serious soul searching,
but should she still go ahead with her wedding or should she just call the
whole thing off?

What
gave you the idea for your book and how long did it take to write?

I’m
fascinated by the idea of temptation and where it can lead you. I wondered what might happen if you stumbled
across your best friend’s diary. Would
you really be able to resist taking a sneaky peek? And if you did take a little peek, what might
happen if you discovered something you really didn’t want to know? This novel took me four months to write.

How
did you find your publisher?

I
saw a call for submissions from Carina just as they were setting up. I was intrigued, knowing they were part of
Harlequin, about their new digital imprint and hoped my novel might be a good
fit for their line. I quickly sent off
my full manuscript and couldn’t believe it when I received an email some weeks
later saying they’d like to call me to discuss my manuscript. It really was a dream come true.

This
is your second book for Carina. How did the process differ from your first
book?

The
big difference was that I had a deadline to work to which focussed my mind
somewhat! My first novel was written
over the course of a year and went through the RNA NWS scheme so I was able to
make several changes to it before submitting to publishers. Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off was written to
a much shorter timescale and I’d barely written ‘The End’ before it was sitting
in my editor’s inbox.

What
is next in your writing life?

I’m
delighted to have a further two book contract with Carina UK so I’m currently drafting
my third novel which has a working title of My Perfect Boyfriend. It’s a romantic comedy which I hope will be
published later this year.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Today, we are delighted to welcome new member,
Liam Livings. Liam agreed to answer our questions about being a male member of
the RNA and what he thinks of the association.

Are male writers
welcome within the RNA?

I’ve found two other male members of
the RNA: Bill Spence,
writing as Jessica Blair, has 23 novels to her name, is more regularly borrowed
from UK libraries than King or Le Carre, and was shortlisted for an award at
the RoNAs on 17th March. Andrew Shephard, who uses the pen name Robert Fanshaw,
said, ‘The RNA is a useful source of information and contacts. I went to the
conference in the summer and met loads of fantastic, experienced writers who
made me feel very welcome. A man attending the Conference is in a small
minority, but a shared interest counts for more than a shared gender.’

I’ve always worked in mainly female
workplaces: nursing homes, hospitals, so am well used to being outnumbered by
women. I’ve been to five or six RNA London chapter meetings, and every time,
being the only man hasn’t really been an issue.

I was welcomed very warmly into the
RNA. At the first meeting, one of the women said they used to have a man coming
to the London Chapter meetings, ‘but never a gay man, although we did have a
gay women once before, if that’s the correct term.’ Some people may have come
over all how very dare you at that,
but I’ve received enough genuinely hurtful comments to recognise a benign one
when I hear it. Another author, during a conversation about Nanowrimo, said
that of course I didn’t mind being the only man there did I because I liked the
attention? I agreed, and she nodded knowingly with a wink, and we continued our
conversation about to plan or not to plan, and how I’d written so much during
Nanowrimo. Conversations like that are what going to writers groups are about,
not one's sexual persuasion.

Can men write
romance?

I write a niche genre within romance:
male/male fiction. Within that niche, as a male, I am a minority. I’m often
asked how that makes me feel, being a minority in a genre about gay men, of
which I am one. Good writing is good
writing, and bad writing is bad writing, whichever gender you are.

I’ve read some awful schlocky romance
by both genders. And some marvellous romance by both genders too: men can write romance just like women can write crime/horror.

I’ve also read some great male/male romance
by both sexes, as well as some dire male/male romance by gay men and straight
women.

It’s about how that writer tells the
story, and whether their voice appeals. There are some writers who could write
about taking their mum to buy a new fridge, and I know I’d be enchanted by the
story and voice. There are others who, despite filling four hundred pages,
failed to actually tell me the story, or make me smile, cry or laugh. That
skill isn’t determined by gender. More women write romance than men. There are
more female midwives than male, by 99 to 1, but it doesn’t mean the male
midwives are any worse at midwifery than their female counterparts.

How have you found
the RNA since becoming a member?

I’ve found the newsletters informative,
and am looking forward to the RNA conference in summer. I’ve read Robert Fanshaw’s
blog about his experience
as a man at that conference in 2013, and am looking forward to joining his
small minority of men in 2014.

I believe writers need other writers
and the RNA does a great job at connecting them, in real, face to face life.
I’m all for social media, but there’s something wonderful and human about
making connections in real life. And that’s why I come back to the meetings.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Zanna
Mackenzie lives on the Derbyshire/Leicestershire border with her husband, 4
dogs, a vegetable patch that’s home to far too many weeds and an ever expanding
library of books waiting to be read.

When
Faith meets Zane she enjoys his company even though she can’t help wondering
why he’s so reluctant to talk about himself.

Then
the past comes back to haunt her in the shape of Zane’s business partner Matt,
the guy who broke Faith’s heart years ago.

What
name do you write as? If it is not your given name why did you change? If it is
would you ever write under another name?

I
write under the pen name of Zanna Mackenzie. My real name is Suzanne Farmer and
I thought that sounded a bit boring so I wanted to change it to something with
a more lyrical feel to it!! My mum called me Zanna when I was little so I went
with that as my alternative first name and chose Mackenzie as my surname
because my husband and I used to live near Edinburgh and I always fancied being
Scottish!

What
gave you the idea for your book and how long did it take to write?

I
love setting my books in my favourite UK locations and have written books set
in the Scottish Highlands,North Yorkshire, the Lake District and now, in my latest book, If
Only You Knew

Once
I had the ‘where’ and the key settings of the café and the extreme sports
centre, the characters and ideas just popped into my head. The original outline
plot idea and the eventual plot share some similarities but there were a lot of
changes along the way!

The
first draft probably took about four or five months. Then I read it through away
from the computer and filled an A4 notebook with comments about what needed to
be changed, what bits needed extra information, which aspects of the characters
needed fleshing out etc. I spent another few months working all these edits
into the manuscript. Altogether it probably took about 8 months, though not
working full time on it.

Do
you plan your novels? If you do how long will this take?

I
start off with a setting, a plot, listing the key plot points and where they
occur in the story, and have detailed biogs for the characters. Then I start
writing and inevitably things take on a mind of their own and the plot deviates
and characters start behaving how they want to! I remember in one book a man
who should have been a minor character suddenly started getting ideas above his
station and decided he wanted to compete with the ‘hero’ for the attentions of
the lead female. I decided to let him try his luck and see if he won her heart
or not!

If
you would write a book in another genre what would you choose?

Funny
you should say that... I’m in the middle of writing my first romantic suspense
at the moment. As a child I was a tomboy and loved racing around playing with
guns so I’m thoroughly enjoying writing a feisty female lead for the book who
can be just as tough as the guy she finds herself working with to solve the
mystery.

What’s
next in your writing life?

I’m
a little torn in a way. I have the aforementioned romantic suspense novella to
finish but I also have three incomplete WIPs in the contemporary romance genre.
I really need to pick one project and focus on it!

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

This month we feature the
RNA Chapter from Chelmsford. We spoke to Sheila Norton about the band of
members who meet in Essex.

Welcome
Sheila, tell us a little about your Chapter.

We
meet once a month at The Saracen Hotel in Chelmsford. There are as few as five
or as many as eighteen and we have been meeting since 2008.

When do you meet?

We
are a luncheon club and meet from midday and are generally finished by three.
We don’t have speaker events but meet to discuss our writing, socialise and
support each other.

Is your chapter open to
non-members of the RNA?

Yes,
anyone is welcome.

What do you have planned for
2014?

We’ve
just had our Retreat Day which was very successful. Apart from that we will
have more lunch meetings.

What would you say makes
your chapter of the RNA so special?

We
are basically good friends, who understand each other’s concerns, celebrate
each other’s good news and commiserate with the bad.

Who is the contact for new
members?

Currently
myself: sheilaann.norton@sky.com

Tell us more about your
recent Retreat Day.

Firstly,
on behalf of the Chelmsford Chapter, I would like to thank the RNA committee
for the £100 grant which enabled us to hold a really successful and enjoyable
Retreat Day on Thursday 13th February.

Our
grant was used to hire a conference room at The Saracen Hotel in Chelmsford.
Fifteen of us got together there for a day of intense writing-related activity.
The morning was devoted to a Q & A session, chaired by Jean Fullerton.
Questions about any aspect of writing had been sent to Jean in advance, so that
she could compile a list to work through, with questions being put in the first
instance to those present who were most likely to have some useful response,
and then thrown open to discussion amongst us all. This led to some
really interesting and useful discussions and took us right through to the
break for our superb buffet lunch (the cost of which we had shared between us).

After
lunch we had a few more questions, followed by a discussion about books we had
recently read. We then moved on to a Flash Fiction game devised by Fenella
Miller, which resulted in some hilarious pieces of short writing and certainly
lightened the tone! We finished at 3.30pm and all who attended have agreed
the day was such a success, we’d love to do something like it again sometime.

Prior
to the event I contacted the Essex
Chronicle, who duly featured a piece about our day, in the paper, together with
a picture of some of us taken outside the Saracen Hotel the previous week,
holding copies of our books

Thank
you, Sheila.

Brought to you by the blogging team of Elaine Everest, Natalie Kleinman and Liv Thomas.

Friday, March 7, 2014

Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and
erotic romance in a variety of subgenres, lengths and pairings, and has over 100
publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several
‘Best’ anthologies from Cleis Press.

In Stately Pleasures Alice Brown is the new temporary property manager at
Davenport Manor. Unfortunately, she screws up and is given a shocking ultimatum
by her boss. Stunned, she goes along with it, but when the dust settles she
realises there are worse things she could be doing to advance her career.

What
gave you the idea for your book and how long did it take to write?

I’ve
been utterly fascinated by stately homes for years. For me, visiting them is
like being in a different world – imagining how people lived when the building
was first inhabited, wondering how current residents live. It’s something
that’s always sparked my imagination. The longer I’ve been writing erotic
romance, the more I seem to see naughty potential in seemingly innocent objects
and places. So putting together a stately home and my imagination produced a
very naughty book! It’s the first novel I wrote, so it took a while as I had to
conquer the learning curve, but I think it took about five or six months, which
I don’t think is too bad for a first-timer!

When
promoting your books do you prefer radio interviews or blogging - and why?

Because
of what I write, I find that the promotional opportunities are different than
for mainstream authors. I can’t imagine my local newspaper or radio station
would be comfortable covering what I write. I have been on radio once, which
was a rather nerve-wracking experience, so I’d definitely go for blogging. I
can write and re-write a blog until I’m happy with it, but if I’m on live
radio, there’s so much potential to screw up.

How
did you carry out your research?

I
visited lots and lots of stately homes and gardens, looking at them with the
express purpose of figuring out where and how my characters could get up to
their shenanigans. The rest, I’m sad to say, is total and utter fabrication.

What
is next in your writing life?

I
never stop. I’ve always got something on the go. Though I want to write more
novels, I also still like to write short stories and novellas, so I’ve always
got more than one WIP on the go. I also have my second solo novel (I
co-authored a sports romance) sitting on my computer ready for me to go through
and edit it before sending it to a couple of beta readers. It’s pretty long, so
it’ll take a while, but I adored writing the book and just hope it gets
published and that people like it! In the meantime, I have short stories and
novellas scheduled to release in coming months.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Today we
are chatting to hard working committee member, Tracy Hartshorn about our annual
Summer Party that is an important date on the calendar of The Romantic Novelists’
Association.

Welcome to
the blog, Tracy. Sorry for so many questions but we thought our newer members
would like to know as much as possible about the Summer Party.

Where is the party to be held
this year?

The
Summer Party this year will be held at the Royal Overseas League, which is on
Park Place, off St James’s Street, London on May 22nd. It’s a lovely venue,
with a huge room perfect for networking.

What is your job as part of the
team?

My role
is to make sure everyone gets their tickets in good time for the event, and
I’ll also be on the door on the night, welcoming everyone in. My friend and
fellow committee member, Pamela Fudge, will be helping me this year.

Can members bring along family
and friends?

Oh
absolutely! It costs a little more for non-members (£39) but they are very
welcome. And you don’t have to be with a member to attend. If you’ve ever
wondered what we do at the RNA, and are considering joining us, you’re welcome
to come along and meet us. We’re a nice, friendly lot and we don’t bite!

For anyone contemplating
attending for the first time what can they expect?

It’s an
informal affair with drinks and nibbles, where everyone, writers, editors,
agents and other industry professionals, network and chat with each other.

Are there any speeches or special
events during the party?

Generally
the Chair will say a few words to welcome everyone, and the Summer Party sees
the presentation of the Joan Hessayon Award for New Writers Scheme members who
have had their first book published. But generally, the emphasis is on people
being able to meet and get to know each other.

What is appropriate attire for
the party? Long or short? posh or plain?

Whatever
you feel most comfortable in. Some use the party as an excuse to buy a new
frock and dress up to the nines. Others wear smart casual. I believe there is a
dress code for some parts of the club, but as far as I’m aware this doesn’t
apply to the Hall of India and Pakistan.

Is there to be formal seating
this year?

Not as
far as I’m aware. Generally the room is set out with seats all around, with the
centre clear (apart from a few side tables) so that people can stand in groups
and chat.

What advice can you give for
anyone attending alone and for the first time?

Don’t be
nervous. There will always be someone to talk to. If you are attending alone
for the first time, let me or Pamela know at the door and we will find someone
to take care of you. You’ll find that once you’ve broken the ice with one
person, the rest comes easy.

Will there be refreshments? If
yes do we need to state vegetarian?

There
will be one complimentary glass of wine or a glass of orange juice per person,
after which there is a bar at which people can buy their own drinks. There will
also be nibbles. There is no need to state vegetarian as we always ensure there
are a good selection of vegetarian choices. I should perhaps emphasise
that the nibbles are just that. Bite-size portions. It’s a good idea to either
eat before you arrive or go out for a meal afterwards.

How can we obtain tickets?

You can
find the Summer Party booking form on the RNA website here: http://www.romanticnovelistsassociation.org/activities
Alternatively I will be attending the RNA meeting in London on 15th March 2014,
and bringing plenty of tickets with me, so if you’d like to save on postage,
bring along your booking form and your payment and I can give you your ticket
on the spot. I will also bring Summer Party tickets along to the RNA
awards ceremony at 1 Whitehall Place on Monday 17th March, so if you’re there
you could get your ticket then. (Please note: I would prefer a cheque or a
postal order in payment, otherwise it means me travelling home with a lot of
cash, which I’d rather avoid if I can).

Thank you, Tracy for taking time
out of your busy schedule to answer our questions.

The blogging team will be attending the
party so if you have a book to promote or would like to write a craft article
for us please track us down have a chat.

Complied by Elaine and brought to you by the blogging team of Elaine Everest, Natalie Kleinman and Liv Thomas.

Please contact us at elaineeverest@aol.com if you wish to be featured on our blog or would like to write a craft article.

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Loves Me Loves Me Not

Romantic Novelists' Association

We work to enhance and promote the various types of romantic and historical fiction, to encourage good writing in all its many varieties, to learn more about our craft and help readers enjoy it.

Romantic Fiction covers an enormous range, from short stories through category romance and much of women's fiction, to the classics. The nature of romantic fiction means that most of these novels are written and read by women. The RNA, however, boasts a number of very successful male authors amongst their membership.